Pressure scanner assemblies are high accuracy, low-cost devices that incorporate and combine many pressure sensors (e.g., 8, 16, 32, 64, etc.) having wide pressure ranges into one small box. More specifically, the pressure sensors are housed in various sensor plates that correspondingly fit within the small box of the pressure scanner assembly. Each pressure sensor is configured to measure pressure of an applied pressure source and subsequently produce an output indicative of that pressure. This output is then transmitted via an electrical connector to a data logging system. This output can be in analog or digital form.
The data from the pressure scanner assembly must then be correlated to actual pressure readings. The gain and offset for each sensor must be used to convert from raw voltage to a pressure reading. In most pressure scanner assemblies, the output data must also be corrected to compensate for thermal errors. This is typically done by manually entering correlation and correction coefficients into a data acquisition system, which can be time consuming. Alternatively, a memory chip storing correction coefficients can be embedded into the pressure scanner assembly, however the memory chip must be updated and/or recalibrated each time a pressure sensor malfunctions and is replaced.
In many embodiments, the sensor plates are built into the pressure scanner assembly and thus, cannot be easily replaced by the user. Instead, the user must send the pressure scanner assembly back to the manufacturer to replace the necessary sensor plates or individual sensors, which can be time consuming and costly. In other embodiments, pressure sensors are attached to a removable sensor plate so that, if needed, a sensor plate having working pressure sensors can replace a sensor plate with damaged pressure sensors. These embodiments, however, require that the replacement pressure sensors are of the same pressure range and/or have similar correction coefficients. Therefore, if a sensor plate configured to operate under different pressure parameters is used as the replacement sensor plate, it will adversely interfere with the electronics of the overall pressure scanner assembly.
Because of these limitations, there is a need for a pressure scanner that has replaceable sensor plates, wherein the sensor plates can be interchanged with other sensor plates of the same or different pressure ranges without disrupting the electronic configuration of the pressure scanner assembly or having to recalibrate and/or update the memory chip installed thereon.